One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to figure out when it's possible to plant violas by checking out the USDA zone info for Forest Lake.

Planting Calendar for Violas

Frost tolerance for violas:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Violas do ok in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Forest Lake is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant violas and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your violas may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your violas indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Forest Lake. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Forest Lake is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Forest Lake there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your violas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Forest Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Forest Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Forest Lake.